March 1 I Thursday

Numbers 20-22

Mark 7:1-13

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”    —Genesis 1:1-2

There is probably no other section of Scripture that is as controversial as Genesis, chapters 1 to 3. Genesis means “beginning,” and within these chapters we have the beginning of the universe and of the world, the beginning of life, the human race; the beginning of society, work and responsibility toward the earth. We have the beginning of marriage, of sin, of evil, of corruption and the beginning of hope.

Genesis deals with the very deep questions of life, and one of the most controversial is this: Does God exist? The Bible does not explain God prior to the beginning. It assumes His existence and everything else in the Bible stands on the foundation of the opening four words, “In the beginning God…”  

It was not until 1929 that Edwin Hubble discovered the universe is expanding and galaxies, of which there are about 140 billion, are moving away from each other. Were it to go into a reverse process, all the matter in the universe would contract to a mass so infinitesimally compact that it would have no dimensions. It is called a “singularity,” but something happened just before this singularity, and that is “God created.” For the first time, science came to agreement with Genesis 1:1 in that the universe has a single beginning. However, science cannot take us back to the actual instant of creation because they do not know what happened with that singularity.

There are two options to consider. The first is scientifically inconceivable, but is the affirmation of Scripture. Someone created something out of nothing. Go back to that tiny singularity and it is non-existent until God created. The second option is that nothing created something out of nothing. Which of these two options would be the more reasonable? Science does not know the answer but there are many people who believe that life is simply a fluke; that we came from nothing and are going to nothing.

“In the beginning God created” tells us the creation of the universe was not a random event. So why does God give this simplistic view of a seemingly endless universe when it has been discovered that earth is just one small planet in one of about 140 billion galaxies? The logical explanation is that the earth, not the universe, is the focus of God’s creation because He did something unique on this planet—He created people and that is where His interest lies. The whole Bible is the story of God’s relationship with people. It is not a cosmological story; it is a relationship story of the interaction between heaven and earth, because it is the story of the interaction between God and humanity.

Prayer: Eternal Father, all of Your creation leaves me in awe. Thank You for making us the pinnacle, and because of this I know You are personally involved in my life. What peace and strength that gives me! Thank You, Father.